Toddler Treading Water Miraculously Survives Fire

About an hour after falling asleep in a Trenton basement, he awoke to flames and smoke clogging the air early Thursday. As at least four others escaped the house, Augustine got trapped in the basement, which began to fill with water as firefighters fought the blaze.

Somehow, he stayed afloat as the fire gutted the house. His 7-year-old cousin died upstairs.

Two hours into fighting the three-alarm blaze – for reasons he can’t explain – a 32-year veteran firefighter shined a flashlight into a basement window. The toddler looked back.

Neighbors cheered when a firefighter brought Augustine out of the home. Trenton firefighters and family of the Liberian natives who lived in the home hailed the 18-month-old’s rescue as a miracle.

“When you see something” like that, said Trenton Police Lt. Stephen Varn, “how can you not have some sort of faith?”

But Trenton’s close Liberian community remained stunned by the death of 7-year-old Aldrey Anderson, whose body was recovered from a second-floor bedroom.

“We don’t believe what happened,” said Trenton resident Lydia Jackson, 20, Aldrey’s cousin. “I pray for a new beginning. I pray his soul may rest in peace.”

Aldrey’s mother, Evie, who lives in the Vine Street rowhouse, jumped from a second-floor window, breaking her right leg, fire officials said. Her husband lives in Monrovia, Liberia, said a family friend.

Another woman, a 5-year-old girl, and a 7-year-old girl who were in the basement with Augustine got out with the help of neighbors before firefighters arrived, Varn said.

The fire didn’t appear to be arson, he said, but the cause and origin were under investigation. The blaze broke out around 12:15 a.m. and was under control around 3 a.m.

The blaze forced firefighters back several times when they tried to get into the home, said Leonard Carmichael Jr., director of the Trenton Fire Department. Flames and heat also prevented them from initially being able to verify how many people were in the house, he said.